Learn animation and game concepts through Alice
Ever wonder what the backend of creating video games, and video game programming looks like? Enter Alice.
It allows students to learn fundamental programming concepts in the context of creating animated movies and simple video games. In Alice, 3-D objects (e.g., people, animals, and vehicles) populate a virtual world and students create a program to animate the objects.
Alice is free and open source. It is a stand alone application, and is available on many platforms. It uses much of the technology that was used in the making of The Sims2.
It’s used at many schools and colleges as a teaching tool. Instructions are similar to that of C++ and C# But includes a neat drag and drop interface for the actions, methods and properties. I made a short sequence myself in about 10 minutes.
Exporting to the web is a bit difficult because it requires the end user to have a lot of Java framework installed on their unit. Exporting as video isn’t functioning yet as the video’s are just too big. You can view a bunch of Alice works on YouTube.
Here’s some more info direct from Carnegie Mellon:
July 31st, 2008 • 
Lestat • 
3D Modeling, Animation, Design, Graphics, Open Source, Rendering, Software • 
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comment | July 31, 2008 at 11:52 | individual comment-link
I learned of Alice through Dr. Randy Pausch’s work on Virtual Reality and spent the better part of an afternoon getting a penquin to move around a build I created. A lot of fun!
I see this, however, as a learning tool for crafting virtual worlds, for the first-level user, rather than as an immersive experience for the second- (and third-) level users. If you’re looking for a plug-n-play kind of experience, this isn’t it. But if you want to learn the HOW’s behind the creation? This is a great way to get your feet wet.
Cool!
comment | July 31, 2008 at 18:54 | individual comment-link
Funny, I stumbled across it today while checking out Dr Pausch’s “last lecture”.
It does seem to be an entry level tool. I agree. I wish there were more tools out there like this to get one used to using OOP. Then I could understand objects, methods much better. “Playing” is a great way to learn